Linda Scarpetta is the Manager of the Injury & Violence Prevention Section at the Michigan Department of Community Health.She has a Masters degree in Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.Since she joined the department over 17 years ago, she has been involved in the development, implementation and evaluation of a variety of surveillance and community-based injury and disability prevention programs. Prior to joining the health department, she worked as an epidemiologist for two years in Morgantown, WV for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health conducting occupational injury surveillance and statistical analyses. She is currently serving a second term as the Vice President of the State and Territorial Injury Prevention Directors Association (STIPDA) and has served two terms as a member of the STIPDA Executive Committee. She has participated in the development of consensus documents for various national and STIPDA committees, including the Framework for Evaluation in Public Health, Consensus Recommendations for Injury Surveillance in State Health Departments, Consensus Recommendations for Surveillance of Falls, STAT Review Guide, and SafeStates.
Shelli Stephens Stidham has 25 years of experience in public health, including 18 years in injury and violence prevention. From 1990 through 2007, she served in various capacities with the Injury Prevention Service of the Oklahoma State Department of Health. She was responsible for planning and coordinating the development, implementation, and evaluation of statewide and community-based injury prevention programs and overseeing surveillance for reportable injuries. She is also a founding member of Safe Kids Oklahoma. She has been a STIPDA member since 1994, serving as the state-voting representative for Oklahoma from 2005 through 2007. In January 2008, she became the Director of the Injury Prevention Center of Greater Dallas (IPCGD) in Dallas, Texas. The IPCGD has adopted the World Health Organization (WHO) Safe Communities model as an approach for working in communities to engage residents in injury prevention. In 1995, the IPCGD assisted Dallas in becoming the first WHO endorsed Safe Community in the United States; Dallas was re-certified by the WHO in 2007.